Grylls and Sterling Brave the Colorado Mountains -The Asian Age

Running Wild with Beary Grylls this episode features Sterling K. Brown from Black Panther fame. Brown played Killmonger's father in the film and a sort of an impetus to part of Killmonger's actions. Aside from that, in 2016 he got a standing ovation when he won the Prime-Time Emmy Award for The People Vs O.J. Simpson.

Their episode takes place in the Colorado Mountains. This episode premiered on May 22nd, 2017. Brown says that he grew up in suburbs and cities and hadn't been in the countryside so this is really going to challenge him.

He is pretty thrilled about the adventure. Grylls is ready to board a helicopter and says that Brown says that you grow when you are pushed out of your comfort zone and for Sterling K Brown to be careful what he wishes for. The helicopter propels Grylls into the air as he is standing on a platform, held together by logs, with a net for grips hooked for the helicopter.


Brown waits for Grylls and says that Grylls had given him the net before the show. He doesn't know what it is for but he presumes catching animals. Brown confesses that he has not hunted before and that animals do tend to scare him a bit. Grylls gives us an overview of the landscape. It is a remote mountain forest area and it is still filled with snow.

 Even loggers use helicopters, like the one he is riding, to get timber and so these machines aren't designed to accommodate people but he assures us that Brown wanted it to be tough.  When Brown sees him arrive he is really pumped up for the adventure and is amazed at the choice of transport. Grylls harnesses both their safety lines to the suspended platform and they are up in the air. Brown screams with complete excitement.

Soon they are about to disembark and Grylls states to be mindful as it will be a bit of a drop. When they get on the ground Brown has an adrenalin rush from the experience and is pumped up and expresses it. Grylls then starts breaking down the structure of the 48 hours trip.

They will have to go eight or nine miles west down 5000ft deep into an icy, jagged canyon. They will have to find and hunt food, and also build a shelter. On the second day, they have to continue their hard journey to the extraction point. Grylls tells Brown to be careful around the wet and icy rocks as they are walking. He asks Brown's motivation for this and he explains when his five-year-old son goes like "Daddy, you did what?" when he goes back home safely and Grylls says it is his job to make sure of keeping the safety.


Grylls asks why Brown joined acting and heard he went to Stanford University. Brown explained that he was an Economics Major. Acting was just his passion and he was in some plays but he saw when he acted his grades were better in other subjects as acting "fed his soul."

So, he called up his mother after two years and stated he wanted to change his major to acting. Grylls pretends to be Brown's mother upset but Brown stated all she said was did he pray about it and he said "Yes Ma'am." She said if he felt about it this way to just go with God and he has and done this. Grylls states on the camera he loves Brown's enthusiasm and hope it stays with them as they endure cold, hunger and the elements.

They are walking through the rocky terrain and they come across a 150ft hanging they must repel from with a rope. Brown accentuates to the viewers he has never repelled from anything in his life. Grylls finds a tree to harness as they descent and Brown explains it is like the smallest tree as their base. However, before they can go down Grylls spots something.

He takes out a pair of binoculars and looks at something. Grylls shows Brown, through the binoculars, that they have spotted a dear and he wants to stalk the deer for a hunt. So, Grylls advises Brown not descend down making noise. They will go down and fashion a spear, camouflage themselves and hunt the deer.

Though while descending Brown does have a struggle and the deer is alerted a bit by the noise. Though both Grylls and Brown make it down. Brown says they will sneak up on the quiet creature and try to get him, which will be one of the most traumatic experiences of his life with a laugh.

Grylls grabs a sharp branch and advises Brown to strike behind the shoulder, where the heart is. Brown is so surprised as he has not done anything like this his entire life. Grylls sharpens the branch with a knife to make it more spear-like. Brown jokes he would be more the gatherer than the hunter, satisfied with berries and other vegetation.

Brown is camouflaged with hay like straw and goes up. However, the deer hears both Grylls and Brown and runs away. Though Grylls says that one lost opportunity in the wild may mean another may present itself. Turns out that they have a frozen Racoon. Brown is terrified of Racoons as he had seen them eat a cat. They unearth the Racoon and Brown states that maybe if he eats its flesh his fear may go away. He also gets nervous as he is carrying the dead racoon.

Grylls and Brown talk about their children and Browns says both his children are home births with his first child he delivered himself with the midwife on the phone. Grylls also had a child with a home birth. Then Grylls talks about Brown's connection with the character he played in a show called This is Us. Browns says the protagonist lost his adoptive father and didn't know his biological father and so he feels bereft of a paternal connection. Brown himself lost his father when he was ten and at the time of the show he is 40. The thing he remembers about his father is that he loved Brown and that love resonates powerfully through him till today and he wants to give that sort of love to his own children.

They make a shelter among two trees, get a net and also pile it with branches. They make a rock wall for the fire to cook the racoon. Brown is told to cut the leg of the racoon. He does and gives it thanks for its body for sustenance. Grylls tears it off. Grylls shows the fat and lean meat racoons have that help them survive this terrain. Brown jokes for Grylls not to eat the raw racoon meat so they start cooking it.

Over the fire, they share another conversation. Brown reveals his father had died of a heart attack and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes the day he died. He wasn't diagnosed before as he didn't go to the hospital and was averse to it. Brown stated that he was grocery clerk whose store was bought by another chain and it got him depressed as his identity was tied to his work so Brown does not wish to do that. They eat racoon meat and Brown was like it tastes okay but not tasty.

While Brown slept, Grylls made a hat ouit of the racoon they ate and Brown wears it in the morning. They keep on traversing through the icy, rocky slopes and come across a 150ft+ feet frozen waterfall and they have to move down that. Grylls hooks it to an ice rock and calls it an ice thread and Brown is scared of such a thing but Grylls assures him this is the best way.

Grylls hooks around the ice rock and causes friction with the rocks by rubbing with around back and forth which melts the ice. Soon after five minutes it will refreeze over the ropes and add strength as they go down. They get their socks outside their boots so that they get a good grip over moisture that freezes. Soon Grylls goes down first and Brown and then also goes down. He cannot believe he just went down a waterfall with socks. They end their journey getting into an all-terrain open jeep and ride off with Brown as excited as ever.


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